Scholarship Established in Memory of VGCC Student

A new scholarship will be awarded at Vance-Granville Community College this year, due to the generosity of a local family who lost their child at a young age. Ashley Cozart’s parents had saved money for their daughter’s education. In the wake of Cozart’s tragic death earlier this year, they have decided that those funds will be used to support the education of one or more students like her instead.

The young Granville County woman and first-year Vance-Granville Community College student died in April 2007 after an automobile accident. Her parents, Larry and Jackie Griffin-Cozart, recently made a donation to the Vance-Granville Endowment Fund to create an Ashley Nicole Cozart Memorial Scholarship for students who are working to earn an Early Childhood degree, as Ashley had hoped to do. Early Childhood Associate students prepare to work with young children in day care centers and similar settings.

Jackie is a VGCC graduate herself, having completed an Early Childhood Associate degree in 2005. She now operates Jackie’s Daycare Center, a five-star home day care in Oxford, which also serves as a site for VGCC students to complete their cooperative education (or “co-op”) assignments. Jackie is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education at North Carolina Central University.

At the family’s request, VGCC Early Childhood Associate program head/instructor Jennifer M. Johnson will determine the winners of the scholarship and present it to the students. To be eligible, students will have to be enrolled in the Early Childhood Associate program, be in good academic standing and demonstrate financial need, as determined by Johnson.

Donations to the VGCC Endowment Fund are tax deductible, and have often been used to honor or remember a person, group, business or industry with a lifelong gift to education. Contributions to the Endowment Fund can be made by gifts of cash, real or personal property, or securities, provision of a will or insurance policies, or establishment of trusts.